Title: The Circle Author: Dave Eggers Date of Publication: October 8, 2013 Literary Period: Contemporary Genre: Novel Describe the setting and then explain the relevance of the setting. The Circle takes place in a world with advanced technology, but it is generally extremely similar to our own. The monopoly tech firm is in California like most of our current tech companies. The time is slightly in the future. Many of the futuristic technologies outlined in the book already exist today. The significance of the similarities in the setting to our own world is that Eggers wants the reader to feel the urgency of the doom of humanity and how soon the problem should be addressed. The parts of the setting that deviate from modern America are the crisp, clean designs of the Circle. There is an abundance of glass throughout the campus, and
Themes (These statements should be complete sentences and completely developed ideas)
The Circle calls for transparency to further social justice, but Dave Eggers shows that the company is an unreliable judge and representation of justice by describing Circlers as childish attention seekers like Alistair.
In The Circle, Eggers shows that the Circle is driven by greed by comparing it to a shark that consumes everything it sees.
In The Circle, Dave Eggers shows that deception can often be justified if it helps fulfill a benign purpose, like Ty trying to warn Mae by disguising himself as Kalden, which contrasts to the Circle attacking privacy by removing even the possibility of deception.
In his novel, Eggers suggests that choices meant to make people feel more free and safe can often confine them more by writing about saving children from abduction by implanting them with tracking chips that later convert them to numbers as they get ranked academically.
Plot Summary (Please do not copy and paste. Simply list the high points of the novel) - Consider creating a visual flow chart or graph and posting it here. (Beginning, Middle, End)
Mae is given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work at the Circe, partially due to the influence of her friend Annie. She begins work and is forced to integrate into their social media, and she begins to also get overworked late into the night due to the inspiration of the company. The Circle introduces multiple ways of monitoring people and calls for total transparency, gradually introducing it, first to government officials who either join the movement or are framed as degenerates. Mae is forced to be more transparent, and she slowly stops her normal activities away from the Circle, which include kayaking and visiting family. She is embarrassed by Francis and prefers the company of Kalden, who she only meets at large events. She goes on an especially adventurous kayaking trip one day and gets caught with a vaguely stolen kayak. This event lets Bailey force her to go transparent. When she is completely transparent, people start avoiding her although her rank goes up. She finds her parents and Mercer resisting the transparency and she falls further. Mae calls for completion of the Circle, usurping Annie in rank, which makes her friend rashly opt for her history becoming transparent, which destroys her. Mae attacks Mercer with transparency and he commits suicide after a car chase to avoid it. Kalden reveals that he is Ty and gives one last effort to make Mae realize she should stop the Circle's completion, but she instead renounces him and goes back to Francis.
Memorable Quotes and their SIGNIFICANCE.
"Secrets are lies. Sharing is caring. Privacy is theft" - The nod to 1984 shows the irony of the Circle's intentions. Innocent concepts are tied to negative words that are only vaguely related in order to further an agenda by portraying those who resist the Circle as villains.
"TO HEAL WE MUST KNOW. TO KNOW WE MUST SHARE." - The "must"s tie unrelated concepts together to show that the Circle helps people to find an excuse to invade their privacy.
“Mae didn’t know enough about antitrust laws to have an off-the-cuff opinion.”
This quote is symbolic because the proponents of the Circle’s monopoly do not realize why a monopoly would be bad.
“But then there’s your absence at most of the weekend and evening events, all of which are of course totally optional.”
This quote is ironic because the “totally optional” actions at the Circle are always pressured just as much as required jobs.
Describe the significance of the opening scene.
“She just missed stepping on the hard of a young man in a grey jumpsuit; he was installing a new stone that said, “Breathe.”
Irony is apparent because a grey jumpsuit suggests blandness or imprisonment, but the stone says the opposite.
“Mae knew the company’s practice of naming each portion of the campus after a historical era; it was a way to make an enormous place less impersonal, less corporate.”
The company wants to know everything and fill in the gaps of history, so surrounding themselves in historical eras somewhat embodies that ideal. They also want employees to focus on more than just the business. There is irony in them trying to seem less corporate, because they are the largest monopoly on Earth in the story.
The opening scene foreshadows elements of the Circle that will be taken to extremes later on in the novel. Mae is overwhelmed by the modern buildings that radiate order, so she is convinced that the Circle should provide order to the world with total control. The stones especially show that the Circle openly tries to show that they are proponents of freedoms although they end up taking many freedoms away if any more thought is given to the situation. Mae also shows that she is willing to change to fit the classy Circle, because she wants to leave her past behind. This willingness to change is exploited later when she becomes a major tool for the Wise Men.
Describe the significance of the closing scene. Mae wants to know what her friend is thinking in her coma, even though others knowing too much is what put her into the coma. Her insatiable curiosity demonstrates that those who believe in the Circle’s ideals feel no remorse or do not even notice the side effects of their pursuit of omniscience. The closing scene shows the horror of complete betrayal. Mae does not see the genuine cries for help from those around her, including Ty and Annie, and she destroys them accidentally, to the extent that they no longer want to live. It shows that people could betray everyone they care for simply to act like the camera expects them to.
Describe the author's style and provide examples from the text.
The author writes in a rather familiar way, not afraid to leave out uncomfortable details and rampant cussing. The mundane writing helps the reader realize that the people destroying the world are regular people. Annie especially has a large amount of casual dialogue. Eggers also uses a lot of irony, including a parallel to 1984, a novel by George Orwell that has a similar meaning. "Secrets are lies. Sharing is caring. Privacy is theft." is an example of an allusion to "War is peace, Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."
List importance characters and their significance.
Mae: She seems rather normal and behaves somewhat like an average young adult, thinking that the world is her oyster. Mae is the example of what the general population, maybe even the reader, would do in the world of The Circle. She is corrupted by the peer pressure and is amazed by the innovation to the point where she furthers the hive mind and pressures others to join.
Kalden: He is the genius Ty who gets the ball rolling in the Circle, but he ends up being one of the people who tries to stop the machine. His innovation without a purpose shows how seemingly innocent ideas can end up caging humanity.
Annie: Mae's best friend who introduces her to the wonders of the Circle. She is a prime example of a Frankenstein character. She builds up Mae using her own position in the company, but then she fears the competition from what she created, and Mae ends up destroying her.
Alistair: A coworker who shows that Circlers are a society of manchildren, grown adults who operate with playground rules. They are attention needy and do not behave old enough to be controlling anything.
Jared: He constantly pressures Mae into becoming more and more of a brainwashed Circler. He represents societal pressure to conform accelerating the doom of transparency.
Francis: He is one of the first characters to explicitly show a negative of the Circle's policies. Not only does he upload a private home video, but he also opens Mae up to the audience in a product launch. He opens the eyes of Mae to the problems of transparency before she can become more corrupted, although she eventually does to the extent that she somewhat forgives him.
Eamon Bailey and Tom Stenton: The second and third Wise Men act hand in hand. Bailey is the public face, and Stenton is greedy for power, knowledge, and transparency. Both take Ty's inventions and put them to sinister use. The primary difference between the two is that Bailey is more genuine while Stenton has sinister intent, and he ends up expecting the negative consequences.
Mr. and Mrs. Holland: Mae's parents show that loved ones can be harmed by transparency. Mae clearly wants to help them by giving them medical help complements of the Circle, but she ends up hurting them when they do not want their privacy breached and she does anyway.
Mercer: Mae's ex-boyfriend that she hates due to his mundane traits. She wanted to leave him just like her old job. He is one of the only main characters to resist the Circle, and his death shows the futile nature of resistance to the transparent future.
List important symbols from the work and their significance
Circle: Closing the circle seems like completing something that was meant to be whole, but the shape acts as a cage
Shark: The shark acts like the Circle and transparency. It consumes everything and is always hungry (for knowledge, in the company's case).
Jellyfish: The jellyfish had regular curiosity. It just explored everything, and didn't harm the surroundings. It was innocent intent in the foundation of the Circle.
Sea Horse: The timid creature hid like Mercer, but it died when the shark looked, just like Mercer died when the Circle searched. This species represents the general population, because its children did not hide, like most people in the novel, but they were also consumed.
Circus: The disorder and chaos of the circus shows the world that the Circle wants to provide order to.
Modern Art: The modern art around the Circle is complex and intricate in design. It shows the elegance of the Circle, which impresses Mae and helps her fall under the control of the Wise Men. At the same time, there is the solid box from Judd that Kalden designs the storage unit after. The solid and tangible nature of the design contrast with the vague complexity of the other art. Ty is the one who focuses on real items, then they are made more complex by other Circlers, like the camera being converted into surveillance of government officials and corruption.
Lemon: The green lemon parallels the creations of Ty. He innocently (impressively, as he is described in his gestures) grabs fruit as a gift, but it does not look and act like he thought it would. He innocently creates impressive technology, but it is not used as he initially envisions.
Numbers: The many ranks and stats that Circlers get replace their identity. The book even shows how numbers are used in the Holocaust to replace the identity of Jews that were monitored.
Author: Dave Eggers
Date of Publication: October 8, 2013
Literary Period: Contemporary
Genre: Novel
Describe the setting and then explain the relevance of the setting.
The Circle takes place in a world with advanced technology, but it is generally extremely similar to our own. The monopoly tech firm is in California like most of our current tech companies. The time is slightly in the future. Many of the futuristic technologies outlined in the book already exist today. The significance of the similarities in the setting to our own world is that Eggers wants the reader to feel the urgency of the doom of humanity and how soon the problem should be addressed. The parts of the setting that deviate from modern America are the crisp, clean designs of the Circle. There is an abundance of glass throughout the campus, and
Themes (These statements should be complete sentences and completely developed ideas)
The Circle calls for transparency to further social justice, but Dave Eggers shows that the company is an unreliable judge and representation of justice by describing Circlers as childish attention seekers like Alistair.
In The Circle, Eggers shows that the Circle is driven by greed by comparing it to a shark that consumes everything it sees.
In The Circle, Dave Eggers shows that deception can often be justified if it helps fulfill a benign purpose, like Ty trying to warn Mae by disguising himself as Kalden, which contrasts to the Circle attacking privacy by removing even the possibility of deception.
In his novel, Eggers suggests that choices meant to make people feel more free and safe can often confine them more by writing about saving children from abduction by implanting them with tracking chips that later convert them to numbers as they get ranked academically.
Plot Summary (Please do not copy and paste. Simply list the high points of the novel) - Consider creating a visual flow chart or graph and posting it here. (Beginning, Middle, End)
Mae is given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work at the Circe, partially due to the influence of her friend Annie. She begins work and is forced to integrate into their social media, and she begins to also get overworked late into the night due to the inspiration of the company. The Circle introduces multiple ways of monitoring people and calls for total transparency, gradually introducing it, first to government officials who either join the movement or are framed as degenerates. Mae is forced to be more transparent, and she slowly stops her normal activities away from the Circle, which include kayaking and visiting family. She is embarrassed by Francis and prefers the company of Kalden, who she only meets at large events. She goes on an especially adventurous kayaking trip one day and gets caught with a vaguely stolen kayak. This event lets Bailey force her to go transparent. When she is completely transparent, people start avoiding her although her rank goes up. She finds her parents and Mercer resisting the transparency and she falls further. Mae calls for completion of the Circle, usurping Annie in rank, which makes her friend rashly opt for her history becoming transparent, which destroys her. Mae attacks Mercer with transparency and he commits suicide after a car chase to avoid it. Kalden reveals that he is Ty and gives one last effort to make Mae realize she should stop the Circle's completion, but she instead renounces him and goes back to Francis.
Memorable Quotes and their SIGNIFICANCE.
"Secrets are lies. Sharing is caring. Privacy is theft" - The nod to 1984 shows the irony of the Circle's intentions. Innocent concepts are tied to negative words that are only vaguely related in order to further an agenda by portraying those who resist the Circle as villains.
"TO HEAL WE MUST KNOW. TO KNOW WE MUST SHARE." - The "must"s tie unrelated concepts together to show that the Circle helps people to find an excuse to invade their privacy.
Describe the significance of the opening scene.
Describe the significance of the closing scene.
Mae wants to know what her friend is thinking in her coma, even though others knowing too much is what put her into the coma. Her insatiable curiosity demonstrates that those who believe in the Circle’s ideals feel no remorse or do not even notice the side effects of their pursuit of omniscience. The closing scene shows the horror of complete betrayal. Mae does not see the genuine cries for help from those around her, including Ty and Annie, and she destroys them accidentally, to the extent that they no longer want to live. It shows that people could betray everyone they care for simply to act like the camera expects them to.
Describe the author's style and provide examples from the text.
The author writes in a rather familiar way, not afraid to leave out uncomfortable details and rampant cussing. The mundane writing helps the reader realize that the people destroying the world are regular people. Annie especially has a large amount of casual dialogue. Eggers also uses a lot of irony, including a parallel to 1984, a novel by George Orwell that has a similar meaning. "Secrets are lies. Sharing is caring. Privacy is theft." is an example of an allusion to "War is peace, Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."
List importance characters and their significance.
Mae: She seems rather normal and behaves somewhat like an average young adult, thinking that the world is her oyster. Mae is the example of what the general population, maybe even the reader, would do in the world of The Circle. She is corrupted by the peer pressure and is amazed by the innovation to the point where she furthers the hive mind and pressures others to join.
Kalden: He is the genius Ty who gets the ball rolling in the Circle, but he ends up being one of the people who tries to stop the machine. His innovation without a purpose shows how seemingly innocent ideas can end up caging humanity.
Annie: Mae's best friend who introduces her to the wonders of the Circle. She is a prime example of a Frankenstein character. She builds up Mae using her own position in the company, but then she fears the competition from what she created, and Mae ends up destroying her.
Alistair: A coworker who shows that Circlers are a society of manchildren, grown adults who operate with playground rules. They are attention needy and do not behave old enough to be controlling anything.
Jared: He constantly pressures Mae into becoming more and more of a brainwashed Circler. He represents societal pressure to conform accelerating the doom of transparency.
Francis: He is one of the first characters to explicitly show a negative of the Circle's policies. Not only does he upload a private home video, but he also opens Mae up to the audience in a product launch. He opens the eyes of Mae to the problems of transparency before she can become more corrupted, although she eventually does to the extent that she somewhat forgives him.
Eamon Bailey and Tom Stenton: The second and third Wise Men act hand in hand. Bailey is the public face, and Stenton is greedy for power, knowledge, and transparency. Both take Ty's inventions and put them to sinister use. The primary difference between the two is that Bailey is more genuine while Stenton has sinister intent, and he ends up expecting the negative consequences.
Mr. and Mrs. Holland: Mae's parents show that loved ones can be harmed by transparency. Mae clearly wants to help them by giving them medical help complements of the Circle, but she ends up hurting them when they do not want their privacy breached and she does anyway.
Mercer: Mae's ex-boyfriend that she hates due to his mundane traits. She wanted to leave him just like her old job. He is one of the only main characters to resist the Circle, and his death shows the futile nature of resistance to the transparent future.
List important symbols from the work and their significance
Circle: Closing the circle seems like completing something that was meant to be whole, but the shape acts as a cage
Shark: The shark acts like the Circle and transparency. It consumes everything and is always hungry (for knowledge, in the company's case).
Jellyfish: The jellyfish had regular curiosity. It just explored everything, and didn't harm the surroundings. It was innocent intent in the foundation of the Circle.
Sea Horse: The timid creature hid like Mercer, but it died when the shark looked, just like Mercer died when the Circle searched. This species represents the general population, because its children did not hide, like most people in the novel, but they were also consumed.
Circus: The disorder and chaos of the circus shows the world that the Circle wants to provide order to.
Modern Art: The modern art around the Circle is complex and intricate in design. It shows the elegance of the Circle, which impresses Mae and helps her fall under the control of the Wise Men. At the same time, there is the solid box from Judd that Kalden designs the storage unit after. The solid and tangible nature of the design contrast with the vague complexity of the other art. Ty is the one who focuses on real items, then they are made more complex by other Circlers, like the camera being converted into surveillance of government officials and corruption.
Lemon: The green lemon parallels the creations of Ty. He innocently (impressively, as he is described in his gestures) grabs fruit as a gift, but it does not look and act like he thought it would. He innocently creates impressive technology, but it is not used as he initially envisions.
Numbers: The many ranks and stats that Circlers get replace their identity. The book even shows how numbers are used in the Holocaust to replace the identity of Jews that were monitored.